1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a relay optical connector for connecting optical propagation members such as optical fibers to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
As for the relay optical connector for connecting the optical fibers to each other, for instance, an optical transmission and reception relay is disclosed in below-describe patent literature 1. In the optical fibers respectively in the relay optical connector, ferrules are provided in terminals thereof. End faces of the ferrules are respectively worked so that end faces of the optical fibers are exposed so as to be flush therewith. The end faces of the ferrules come into contact with each other in a ferrule connecting member forming the relay optical connector. In the relay optical connector, the end faces of the ferrules come into contact with each other, so that the optical fibers (the end faces of the optical fibers) are connected to each other.
Patent literature 1: JP-A-2000-47071
In the above-described usual technique, since the end faces of the optical fibers are allowed to come into contact with each other, a below-described problem arises. Namely, when an impact or vibration is transmitted to contact parts, since flaws may be possibly generated on the end faces of the optical fibers, especially, a relay optical connector to be mounted on a vehicle has a problem in view of shortage of reliability.
In such a relay optical connector as to be mounted on a vehicle, there is a method in which end faces of ferrules are separated by a prescribed space or more from each other so that the above-described flaws are not generated on the end faces of optical fibers. However, in this case, since a relatively large space is provided between the end faces of the optical fibers, a problem arises that an optical loss is increased.
Since the above-described space is increased more in accordance with the accumulation of dimensional tolerances of parts which form the relay optical connector, there is a fear that a performance is caused to be unstable and the optical loss is caused to be increased.